Canadian composer Denis Bédard (b. 1950) was born in Quebec City and studied at the Conservatoire de Musique Québec. He also studied in Paris, Montreal, and in Amsterdam with the famed harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. As an organist, he has held posts in Quebec City, and is currently director of music at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver. He has been professor of organ at the University of British Columbia and the Conservatoire de Musique Québec. Bédard is one of the leading Canadian composers of his generation, with a catalog of compositions that includes orchestral, vocal, chamber, choral, and many organ works. His music, essentially tonal and melodic, is characterized by a concern for formal clarity and immediate communication.

He provides the following notes about this work:

“Commissioned by Carson Cooman, the ‘Fantasia’ was written in 2012. It consists of four contrasting parts: a joyful and rhythmic march, an ostinato in which the right hand improvises flourishes on a repeated short sequence played by the left hand, a slow section on quiet stops, and an energetic final section using the full resources of the organ. All these sections are more or less thematically related. It was premiered by Carson Cooman on February 15, 2013 in recital at the University of Iowa.”